Bowman has Blackhawks on verge of another Cup

Bowman has Blackhawks on verge of another CupThe salary cap forced Chicago Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman to dismantle a large portion of his 2010 Stanley Cup winning team. Three years later, his Blackhawks are one win away from another championship.

BOSTON -- Chicago Blackhawks fans everywhere watched with disappointment in the summer of 2010 as their Stanley Cup championship team was dismantled because of the salary cap.

Blackhawks general manager Stan Bowman, however, was the guy rubbing his hands together in the corner, laughing like Dr. Evil, excited and energized by the challenge of putting the puzzle back together with some new blood and fresh faces.

"There is an element to some change that I actually think is good," Bowman told NHL.com on Sunday. "If you bring the exact same team back year to year, it's awful tough to push through the grind of a schedule and a season. If you have a few guys who didn't win it and they want to get there, I think it brings some energy to the group. I don't mind the fact that you have to make some changes."

Replishing depth

The Blackhawks have eight core players remaining from the team that won the Stanley Cup in 2010. The other 19 players listed on Chicago's 27-man playoff roster have become contributors at some point over the past three seasons. Here is a breakdown of the new 19, how they got to Chicago and who they most resemble from players on the 2010 team that no longer are Blackhawks:

Corey Crawford, GChicago's second-round pick in 2003; played with Rockford IceHogs of American Hockey League in 2010

Most resembles from the 2010 team: Hannu Toivonen
-- Compiled by Dan Rosen

Bowman kept the core intact after winning the Stanley Cup, but that meant eventually there wouldn't be room for more than half of the players that played in Game 6 against the Philadelphia Flyers. They were depth players -- guys who played a massive role in 2010 -- but Chicago just couldn't afford them.

A little over 36 months after the demolition of a championship roster began, here the Blackhawks are again, in the same position they were in 2010, 60 minutes away from becoming the first team in the salary-cap era to win the Stanley Cup twice. They can do it against the Boston Bruins in Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final at TD Garden on Monday (8 p.m. ET; NBC, CBC, RDS).

Chicago let Niemi go to the San Jose Sharks three years ago, choosing instead to match the offer sheet the Sharks gave to defenseman Niklas Hjalmarsson.

The reason: Crawford was ready for a promotion.

"Our options were we could let Niklas go and get the draft choices, but those draft choices wouldn't have been until the 2011 draft and those players we got probably wouldn't help us until at least around now," Bowman said. "We didn't have anybody else like Niklas, a 24-year-old defenseman at the time that can jump in and play those minutes. Nor was there anybody that was readily available that could fill that hole without us having to give up assets to do it. But we had Corey. … The only thing Corey needed was an opportunity. Here we are a couple of years later."

Dustin Byfuglien, a power forward on the 2010 team, was traded to the Atlanta Thrashers after the Blackhawks won the Stanley Cup, but Bowman already knew Bryan Bickell, a 6-foot-4, 233-pound power forward, was prepared for a bigger role. Bickell, who played four games in the 2010 playoffs, earned it this season and has become one of the most prominent forwards on the team this spring and summer.

However, he could be the next player Bowman has to replace -- Bickell could leave Chicago via unrestricted free agency in July.

"I can't say that we set out and said we're going to replicate Byfuglien with Bickell," Bowman said. "It wasn't necessarily player for player, but that analogy is pretty accurate."

Campbell was shipped to the Florida Panthers at the 2011 NHL Draft; eight months later, Bowman acquired Oduya in a trade with the Winnipeg Jets. Both good skaters. Both good puck movers. Both veterans. Problem solved.

Saad, a second-round pick in 2011, is developing faster than the Blackhawks thought he would. Handzus is surprising as a second-line center. Stalberg adds speed to the lineup. Kruger and Frolik have become Chicago's top penalty-killing duo and fourth-line forwards flanking center Dave Bolland.

"Frolik is a top-10 pick [in 2006], he scored 20 goals his first two years in the League," Bowman said. "I've seen a lot of guys with that profile who are too stubborn and too upset when they're given a role like that and they don't buy into it, they're always frustrated when they're not getting a chance. But you see Michael, you're not going to meet a more upbeat, positive kid. That's the way he is all the time and I think that contributes to his success. He's embraced the role. It's a tough thing to do in today's game, to find unselfish guys who just want to win."

Bolland is one of those guys. He was a gritty, dangerous checking-line center on the 2010 team, but has become Chicago's current faster and younger version of the defensive-minded Madden.

In turn, Andrew Shaw, a fifth-round draft pick in 2011, has taken Bolland's role from the 2010 team.

Bowman scoffs when people say Chicago got lucky with Shaw, who was bypassed in both the 2009 and 2010 drafts before the Blackhawks took him with the 139th pick in 2011.

"Shaw is a guy who we really sort of targeted," Bowman said. "I remember [chief amateur scout] Mark Kelley saying, 'We're going to get this kid.'"

But even Kelley didn't want to discuss Shaw too much.

"He said, 'There's a reason for that, because I think he's a diamond in the rough and I didn't want to tip our hand,'" Bowman said. "He was a last-year draft-eligible player and if the rumor gets out, all of a sudden he's not as hidden."

Michal Rozsival wasn't hidden, but he did fly under the radar when Bowman signed him in September 2012, shortly before the lockout. He fills a similar role to the one Brent Sopel played in 2010.

Nick Leddy gives the Blackhawks something unique from what they had three years ago -- a young, developing, promising No. 6 defenseman. Nick Boynton and Jordan Hendry didn't have Leddy's skill set.

"Back in 2010, you had some guys who were probably unknown names that made names for themselves throughout that year and in the playoffs, and you're seeing that happen again this year," Kane said. "For us to be in this situation again three years down the road, especially after the breakup we had from that 2010 team, losing 10 or 11 guys, whatever it is, I think it's a great success."

Even if Chicago can win one more game, there will be changes this summer. They're unavoidable, especially with the salary cap dropping nearly $6 million to $64.3 million.

Maybe Bickell finds another team willing to give him more money. Maybe backup goalie Ray Emery (this year's better version of the 2010 Cristobal Huet) is offered a starting position, or at least a more lucrative contract by another team. Maybe Handzus, Stalberg and Rozsival -- all potential unrestricted free agents -- sign elsewhere. Maybe Bowman pulls off a trade or two.

"We'll make some changes, but for the most part, we'll be in a better spot [than we were in 2010]," Bowman said.

He's right. The turnover won't be as great as it was after the 2010 run, but like Bickell and Crawford were a few years ago, the Blackhawks already have depth players waiting, watching and ready for their chance to take a run at the Cup.

They're backed by a general manager and an organization willing to accept change. They've learned that it doesn't kill a potential dynasty.

"Whether it's Jimmy Hayes, Brandon Pirri or Jeremy Morin, they're going to be hungry," Bowman said. "They've witnessed this. They want to be the guys doing it. I think it's good to have that excitement for the challenge."

He's only 17 but he can see the ice so well and he moves the puck and goes to the open ice all the time, so I just think he's a player that is ready to play in the NHL. I'm really looking forward to coaching someone like this.

— U.S. National Junior Team coach Ron Wilson on Auston Matthews, the projected No. 1 pick of the 2016 NHL Draft